Volunteering at the Animal Shelter
The weekend of the same week that Yeoncheong's secret reading habit got exposed.
She, Seoha, and Suyeon met again in front of an animal shelter.
The purpose was volunteer work. They had originally planned it for mid-month, but moved the date up a bit out of consideration for Nayun's midterm exams.
While Seoha, with her chauffeur, waited, Suyeon and Yeoncheong—who relied on public transportation—arrived almost at the exact same moment.
The moment the two spotted Seoha, they exchanged a glance and, as if on some unspoken signal, broke into a sprint.
The impromptu race ended in Yeoncheong's victory.
"Haah... okay, you're seriously fast."
"Obviously. How do you expect to beat me when I run every single gym class with Nayun?"
Leaving her friend to swallow her disappointment, Yeoncheong turned to Seoha with a friendly smile.
"Oh, sorry. Were you waiting long?"
Seoha checked the time on her phone and gave a small shake of her head.
"No, less than ten minutes."
"Phew... thank goodness. Let's hurry inside."
Suyeon, having finally caught her breath, took the lead, and the other two followed behind her.
After a quick check-in with the staff, the three of them headed straight for where the rescued animals were kept.
The unfamiliar sounds of people set the dogs and cats off, and within moments the shelter was in an uproar.
They couldn't see inside in detail, but from the noise alone it was clear there were quite a lot of animals under the shelter's care.
Apparently the usual tasks were cleaning and dog walking, and after the staff handed out masks and hygiene supplies, it seemed today was a cleaning day.
"Aww..."
At this, Suyeon made no effort to hide her disappointment.
Yeoncheong gave her friend's side a couple of playful pokes and turned her attention to the staff member's explanation.
"We'll have you clean the cat enclosure. You'll need to change your hygiene gloves each time. The way you do it is..."
The staff member demonstrated the process directly, then stepped away for a moment.
Yeoncheong checked that no one was around before her lips twitched.
"They assigned us the cats on purpose, didn't they?"
"Looks like it."
When they'd made the reservation, they'd been told they'd be handling the rescued dogs.
This group was all girls, after all. And with a group of male students booked for the next slot, it seemed like a thoughtful bit of consideration—cats being safer than dogs.
That said.
"I was hoping for the puppies..."
Suyeon—the very girl who'd first proposed the animal cosplay penalty at the school's Hwaryeong Festival, and who had declared herself firmly on Team Dog during their beach trip—couldn't hide her letdown.
Yeoncheong patted her sulking friend on the shoulder, offering what encouragement she could.
"Nothing we can do. You can't exactly pick and choose your tasks when you come here to volunteer."
"She's right. Cats have their own kind of cute, too."
"Well... that's true."
Watching the meowing cats, Suyeon perked right back up and balled her fists.
"Yeah! If we finish fast, maybe if we ask them to let us see the dogs, they'll say yes."
Together with her friend's newfound hope, Yeoncheong and Seoha got started on the cleaning.
Scoop out the litter boxes. Scrub the food and water bowls. Wipe down the soiled floors—and with that, one enclosure was done.
The work wasn't difficult, so cleaning got off to a smooth start.
"Oh! Look at these guys being all affectionate with me!"
Suyeon, who'd insisted she was more of a dog person than a cat person, was suddenly grinning ear to ear as she flaunted the cats' affection like she'd never said a word.
"Yeoncheong. Don't lose to her—show us yours, quick."
"Why are you trying to start a fight with me?"
Seoha, meanwhile, demanded that Yeoncheong face her in a cat-affection battle of her own.
With all the chatter in between, it was honestly hard to tell whether this was volunteer work or a therapeutic retreat.
But then...
"Ugh... this is harder than I thought."
Before long, they were all floundering in the swamp of mindless repetitive labor.
Their backs ached from the endless cycle of crouching and standing, and the street-savvy cats seized every momentary gap to attempt their great escapes.
"Why are there so many cats?"
And true to Suyeon's words.
While they'd been told there were strays as well, the sheer number of abandoned cats far exceeded expectations.
When people thought "pet," a dog was the first image that came to mind, so the scale of cat abandonment came as a genuine shock.
"People just don't take responsibility. If you're not sure you can care for one, you shouldn't get one in the first place—like me."
Having finished another enclosure, Yeoncheong straightened up, declaring that a fleeting "oh, how pretty" was far too flimsy a reason to be responsible for a life.
"Right, Seoha?"
When no answer came back, the two of them turned their eyes to their quiet friend.
"Oh my goodness!"
There, in the space Seoha had been cleaning, sat a cat that had slipped out at some point.
Escape clearly hadn't been its goal—it dangled lazily from Seoha's hands, showering her with affection.
"It's really pitch-black."
A cat black as night, the very color of Seoha's hair.
Maybe it had been a beloved house pet once. The way it nuzzled against her with practiced ease was no amateur's work.
Perhaps it was that devilish charm of its.
The three of them gathered around the friendly black cat, calling it an impromptu break.
"How could anyone abandon a cutie like this? People are way too much."
"Is it asking us to take it home?"
Everyone stuck their fingers through, each of them playing with the cat in turn—
until Seoha, who had seemed lost in thought, finally spoke.
"I'm sorry. Our house is big, but there's no one around. It'd probably be lonely for it."
"Don't cats like being alone more than dogs do, though?"
At Yeoncheong's question, Seoha gave a light shake of her head.
"Even so. Being somewhere huge and quiet... that part is actually pretty hard."
It sounded like she was speaking from experience, and the calm way she said it carried a strange weight.
As if it had understood every word—
the black cat licked the back of Seoha's hand, then obediently returned to its own enclosure.
"Huh, it went back in all by itself."
"Does it actually understand human speech?... That's one smart cat."
The two of them traded idle small talk while quietly studying Seoha's face.
Her parents were successful entrepreneurs, a wealthy household that could afford to attach a personal chauffeur to their daughter—yet there was a loneliness about her that didn't suit the warm season of spring at all.
The air grew heavy.
Just as they were wondering what on earth they could say, the universal skeleton key for moments like this was sitting right beside them.
"It's okay, Seoha. You've got us."
A rival in love for the same person—but also a friend. Suyeon didn't want to see her friend like that.
Leaning sideways, she gathered Seoha into a hug and kept going.
"You've got me and Yeoncheong~ and Hasol and Nayun too. Maybe back when you kept us at arm's length for your own reasons, but not anymore."
"Th-that's right. We text every day. And if you're bored at home, you can always call."
Yeoncheong nodded along vigorously as she added her two cents, and Seoha's red eyes wavered, just once.
They say good people naturally draw good people to them.
Just as those girls had been an enormous stroke of luck for Yeoncheong, so too—for Seoha, who had grown sick of people approaching her with ulterior motives—was it a great fortune to have friends who looked at her for who she was, not for her family name.
"...Thank you."
"That's what friends are for."
Behind Yeoncheong, who snickered and resumed her cleaning—
Suyeon scooted in close and spoke up.
"She's right. If you're ever lonely, call us and chat forever. Or just barge into our place and make us let you stay the night."
And yet... they say you can always hear your own name even in the middle of a roaring party.
Yeoncheong figured the meowing cats would cover her ears—but her own name floated through to her with uncanny precision.
"Excuse me? What's this about doing that in front of the homeowner?"
"Tch. She picks THIS to have good ears..."
"You're treating someone else's house like a hotel. Absolutely not."
As Yeoncheong flatly refused and turned her back, Suyeon called her to a stop.
It was the perfect moment to reveal the secret strategy that had won her countless club-activity meetings.
"Really? Can I? Even if Seoha herself asks, still no? Are we even friends? Do you actually care about us at all?"
The barrage of unfair questions, firing off without giving her a single second to answer, crumpled Yeoncheong's face.
The moment she sensed she was losing, Suyeon just barreled forward like this—
back in the day, she might have eventually caved anyway, but now that Yeoncheong was conscious of her own feelings, she couldn't see a single way to win.
"Ha... if you're going to pull that, it's cheating."
Letting out a long sigh, Yeoncheong turned back around and raised the white flag.
"Fine. But only in a real emergency, okay? If you're lying, I'm throwing you out and cutting contact for a while."
Having finally extracted the answer she wanted, Suyeon flashed a V-sign with her fingers and beamed. And Seoha, learning that pushing hard enough got results, smiled back at her.
Ugh... I swear. When she pulls that face, I just can't say no.
Only Yeoncheong wore a sullen pout—she'd cave anyway, every time, and yet somehow always ended up looking like the one who'd put up a fight.
Maybe it was all the chatter in between. Or maybe, as mentioned before, it was simply that there were far more abandoned cats than they'd expected.
Either way, Suyeon's plan to finish early and ask to see the dogs never came to pass.
"Hey, girls. Since it's turned out this way, let's just grab some food and head home."
Yeoncheong paused to consider the offer of an early dinner.
But she was tired, and cooking dinner once she got home sounded like a chore, so before long she was nodding along.
"Sure."
"Works for me too."
Seoha, after contacting her chauffeur and the housekeeper waiting at home, accepted as well.
Perhaps because they'd just come back from volunteering, the three of them stepped out onto the street deep in animal talk.
As Suyeon looked around for a decent restaurant, she suddenly heaved a sigh.
"Haah... it keeps coming back to me. Such a shame."
"Nothing to be done. At least you got your fill of cats."
Ordinarily she wouldn't have dwelled on it this much, but she'd come brimming with expectations, so her disappointment ran just as deep.
As they walked, consoling Suyeon the dog-lover who still hadn't given up—
Yeoncheong suddenly recalled that chain letter demanding she treat everyone equally.
Maybe not equality (?), exactly, but she couldn't bear to keep watching Suyeon wilt like that, and her lips twitched.
"...Now that I think about it. There is a dog I can see anytime and pet whenever I want."
"Don't tell me it's a video? Something you can actually touch?"
Was she about to show them some YouTube clip or other?
Seoha asked in a tone that said now is not the time for jokes, but Yeoncheong nodded, insisting it was alive.
The kind you could touch directly...
She even glanced around in case there happened to be a pet cafe nearby, but the street held nothing but ordinary shops.
Suyeon, catching on to that too, pressed her friend—who was acting like she was hosting a quiz show—to hurry up and answer.
"Really? Where? What kind?"
The instant her energy came flooding back, she fired off questions with sparkling eyes, and Yeoncheong froze.
Now that it was actually out of her mouth, her sanity had returned and she was no longer sure this was the right call.
At the lengthening silence, her friend's face began to dim again.
Just as the other two always wished to see Yeoncheong smile, she—now aware of her own heart—wished for Suyeon and Seoha to be happy too.
Right. It's not like it'll kill me...
Steel herself done, Yeoncheong cupped both hands and said in a trembling voice:
"Th-there's... Daengcheongi... woof."
Her face flushed scarlet, as if she was dying of embarrassment at her own words.
At an answer beyond anything they'd imagined, the two friends stared at her, mouths agape.
"Y-Yeoncheong. Are you feeling unwell, by any chance?"
Had she worked herself so exhausted that something had gone wrong in her head?
When Suyeon managed to collect herself enough to ask, Yeoncheong snapped at her instead.
"I'm perfectly fine! You—you wrote it in that chain letter, didn't you? Treat everyone equally... so I... you know, I wondered how I'd cheer you up if you were in the same situation as Nayun or Hasol, so I... swallowed my embarrassment... to comfort you... uh, um... anyway. Um."
Having committed to it, her malfunction was beyond description.
Beneath her blue hair, her reddened face glowed like a sunset—and Suyeon and Seoha both privately agreed it was quite the lovely, adorable sight.
But anyway.
In spite of all the stammering, the gist of what she wanted to say came through well enough.
Having grasped her friend's impulsive gesture, Suyeon burst into a soft laugh.
"Thank you. I actually feel a bit better now."
"R-right...?"
She wanted to die of embarrassment, but seeing her beloved friend cheer up left Yeoncheong feeling oddly ticklish inside.
Meanwhile, Seoha—who in a heartbeat had become invisible air—muttered under her breath.
"Yeoncheong, that's too much."
"Wait, hold on. Seoha, are you sulking?"
"Not at all. I'm perfectly fine."
Her tone was not perfectly fine in the slightest.
Solve one, and the other became a problem. Yeoncheong was about ready to lose her mind.
"You don't get to sulk this time!"
"Then do the cute act for me too. Equally."
She'd seen the whole thing right in front of her, so how was it fair to withhold it from her alone—Seoha was being stubborn in a way that wasn't like her at all...
"Grraaaagh!"
Yeoncheong thrashed and wailed, cursing herself for ever opening her mouth.